body mods: stretched lobes

I was inspired to write this because I've recently decided to stretch up from 19mm (3/4") to 22mm (7/8"), and in the process of searching for plugs that I'd like to add to my collection, I have seen droves of bad information and dangerously clueless people between Reddit posts and reviews on Amazon and Etsy.

I have been stretching my earlobes since high school. Early on I was doing it all wrong, but I found the bodymods and stretched communities on LiveJournal before getting to 6ga/4mm, which is the first "big" stretch (8ga to 6ga is going from 3mm to 4mm).